Blessing Food
(This is an excerpt from a University Of Metaphysical Sciences course at www.umsonline.org, please feel free to visit the school website)
Written by Tristan Anderson
Why Is It Useful?
Blessing food is a practice that has been done by people throughout history. It is a way to deeply connect with food that simultaneously uplifts the food as well as our self. Many different ways of blessing food have been developed, but the common threads between them all are to vibrationally energize food to a higher frequency and to create a sense of gratitude and connection to the food.
The Universe As Vibrating Energy
To get a sense of what may be happening when food is blessed, it is useful to realize that the universe is a vibrating field of energy. From deep space to the inside of an atom, it has been shown scientifically and intuitively to be vibrating at different rates. These different rates of vibration are thought to produce the varying elements of creation. Energy creates matter.
As humans we have been shown to vibrate at different rates, which have been found to correlate to different states of emotion. For instance, Kirlian photography has shown that after a meditation session where deep peace has been achieved, the vibratory energy emanating from the body is increased. When we are depressed, angry, or have a general low state of well being this is reflected as a smaller vibratory field around the body.
With this understanding we can now begin to see how creating a sense of gratitude, joy, or peace, will create a more vibrant field within and around us. Then, as we are holding this energy, food can be charged directly by touch or simply by being near this vibratory field which extends out from us. Food has the ability to take on energy. In this way we can energetically charge ourselves and our food to a higher vibration. Once the food is then ingested we take on the new frequency that it holds and we become even more energetically charged. Blessing food is a beautiful example of the circular power of giving and receiving.
Vibrationally Enhancing Water In Food
Another way to understand how our bodies, as well as food, are vibrationally energized to a higher frequency is to compare blessing food with the work done by Masuro Emoto. Emoto found that water is affected by non-physical stimuli such as those from music, blessings, and words when these stimuli are close to water. He was able to photograph the crystalline patterns that occur right as water is freezing. When the words “I love you” were written on the side of a water bottle, the water showed beautiful crystalline patterns. While exposed to peaceful music, water again had intricate crystalline patterns. After being blessed by a Buddhist monk, the water crystals were perfectly structured. Unpleasant words and music didn’t create any crystalline patterns or created very deformed ones. Emoto’s conclusion from these experiments was that water had the ability to be structured into crystalline patterns or become unstructured into non-crystalline patterns depending on what types of vibrational frequencies were around it.
The intuitive sense here is that structured crystalline water will have a more beneficial effect on someone who ingests it than water that is highly disorganized. Gabriel Cousens points out in his book Spiritual Nutrition (2005) that structured water is more absorbable because it resonates with the structured water within our bodies.
Now with this in mind, realize that food, in particular raw food, is full of water. In general, fruits and vegetables are between 70 and 98 percent water, meat and dairy tend to be around 30 to 60 percent water, and nuts, seeds, and grains tend to contain around 5 to 20 percent water. When we do a blessing on food, the water in the food is becoming highly energized and structured. It is now resonating at a higher frequency. This may be one of the deep secrets into why food that is blessed is so powerful. Because there is less to no water in cooked food, the potential for charging this type of food through blessings may be diminished. However, blessing cooked food can still be helpful in restoring it to a healthier state.
Creating A Sense Of Gratitude
Food is a love note from the divine. It is a gift that has been shaped by all the forces in the universe. This beautiful earth is full of so many varieties of food that one would be hard pressed to eat all the different types of food on the earth in a lifetime. Food is a direct link between our being and the universe. Without it there is no life as we know it. It is obvious that there are so many ways to be grateful for food. The challenge of our modern day world with fast paced lifestyles and fast food is to take the time to feel gratitude for our food. We give time for quick pleasure, but rarely do we feel gratitude and deeply connect with food. This can be remedied fairly easily. Slowing down, consciously breathing, giving time for contemplation, and preparing food with our own hands and heart, can all be tools to help us feel gratitude toward food. Other ways to connect with food in a grateful way are to create a garden, eat wild food, or go to a farmers market where there are many different varieties of fresh food. When buying food from a grocery store, or drive up window, it is harder to feel the universal forces within food. The more processing food goes through, the more we are removed from its original energetic forces.
When we are able to feel gratitude, it is an automatic blessing on the food. As explained earlier, creating a sense of peace, gratitude, or joy vibrationally enhances our energetic field which then is absorbed by food. Once this gratitude is deeply felt, often people feel inspired to further bless food through prayers, touch, mantras, or other techniques. Try a traditional blessing practice that seems intriguing to you, or simply bless food in your own way.
Opening The Self Into The Self
Blessing food opens a doorway into healthier living, joy, gratitude, and mystical experience. As we allow our ego self to relax and open, we have more room for the truth of our being to come through. This truth is that we are one with the all. The Self is all the universes and beyond. As the Self we have the potential to express through a self (ego). In order that we not completely identify with just the ego, we must learn new ways of connecting to our larger Self. Blessing food is one way to help us do this because it helps us realize the interconnectedness of life. Through continued practice we can learn to sense the divine in food and in all things. Through enlightenment we no longer sense that presence but become one with that presence.
Gabriel Cousens, the author of Spiritual Nutrition says that water has different blessing effects when ingested in different forms. Bless food and maybe its structure will be more readily absorbable by the body. Daily food values state different requirements based on existing daily food charts. The healthiest way to choose the proper food is using your natural intuition to find what reacts best with your body. Many times the American diet is high in sodium and other nutrients that would other wise be absorbed in much lower quantities. The guide to buy good earth friendly is organic and local food only. Grains area actually not that great of nourishment, most grains we have today can not even reproduce themselves in the wild. Certain foods seem to develop an addiction in some people, like sugar.